No role for Army in polls duties

13 August 2015 10:55 am

Military Spokesman Jayanath Jayaweera today said the army would play no role in election duties in view of Monday's parliamentary election.

However, he said they would have troops on standby in the event there was a request by the police seeking their assistance.

“We will not engage in election activities as poll duties are carrying out by Police officers. However, we have troops on standby to assist the police in the event they make a request,” Brigadier Jayaweera said.

Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said they had deployed 70,549 police officers for election duty in addition to 4,825 Special Task Force (STF) personnel. (Lahiru Pothmulla)